HUMZA Yousaf has set out his vision of what he would like to see in a “progressive” independent Scotland.
Focusing his attention on policy areas which remain under Westminster control, such as energy and workers’ rights, the Health Secretary has outlined a list of five things Scotland could do differently outside the Union.
The SNP leadership hopeful said he hoped an independent Scotland would reform “restrictive” trade union laws and “bring trade unions and workers into the heart of economic policy”.
He also said he would change energy policies which see the prices of electricity and gas linked – which he said was a “key driver” of high utilities bills.
Using oil and gas revenues and the new borrowing powers afforded by independence would contribute to a £20 billion national fund to invest in housing and renewables, he said.
And he pledged Scotland would rejoin the EU and pass laws to help workers buy-out businesses at risk of closure.
Yousaf said: “When we achieve our independence, we will take a radically different, progressive path – bringing workers and trade unions into the heart of economic decision-making and reversing Westminster’s draconian anti-trade union legislation.
“We will make it easier for co-operatives to buy out businesses, sharing the wealth and power with workers, and we will rejoin the European Union, giving Scotland’s businesses access to the single market.
“The SNP in government has pioneered a range of progressive economic policies under the limited devolution settlement, and our party should celebrate these successes.
"But with the full powers of independence we can abandon the failed Westminster economic consensus for good, and create an economy with wellbeing, happiness and health at its heart, which works for all of our citizens.”
And he blasted what he called the “Westminster establishment” consensus that economic growth and tackling poverty were mutually exclusive.
Yousaf added: “The failed economic consensus of both Westminster parties has given Scotland the worst of both worlds – low growth and low productivity, combined with unacceptably high poverty and inequality. It has failed on every measure.
“I’m determined that Scotland can and will chart a different course – radically reimaging what economic policy can look like, with a progressive vision for ensuring that economic growth and social solidarity are equal, mutually reinforcing pillars of government policy.
“Indeed, there is growing evidence that greater equality actually unlocks greater growth – the idea that these two goals should be competing is 1980s-thinking from a Westminster establishment that is stuck in the past.”
